It’s onwards and upwards for The Creases, a band which began as an act of satire. The recent announcement of their largest headline tour to date has been warmly welcomed by fans, as they set out in support of their anticipated debut LP, Tremolow.
Despite curious beginnings, the band quickly legitimised itself as it was picked up by iconic UK label, Rough Trade Records.
“It [the band] was just a bit of a joke for Jarrod and I to muck around in on the weekends. We just recorded a song on video one night together and put it straight online, without any real second thought,” says Joe Agius, lead-vocalist of the Brisbane quartet. “As soon as we realised that people were really into it and that we could make this a real band, we added Aimon and Gabe and it just all changed and happened really quickly. Suddenly we were taking things really seriously and we were playing shows where people wanted to see and hear us.”
Now several years on from the release of their debut EP, Gradient, Tremolow sees The Creases slightly older, significantly wiser and a lot more self-assured.
“It’s been a long time between the album and the EP. And I’d never really played in bands before The Creases, so our [growth in] ability as musicians and songwriters, from then to now, has just been huge,” says Agius on the difference between the music the band is creating now and what has been created in the past. “It was hard to make the record at the right time, because every month we got a better song or a better idea, and we’ve just grown so much; and we keep growing every single week we play together.
“The EP was much more shoegazing and reverbed out and I think it was because we weren’t too comfortable with how we were as musicians … now, the album is very cleaned up and everything’s a bit more upfront and it’s just because we’re more comfortable with ourselves. There’s just a natural progression to it,” he says.
Regardless of the growth of the band and its members, The Creases maintain their spontaneous and fun nature, evident in the recent release of their NSFW video for ‘Is It Love’.
The band joined forces with director Dylan Duclos in the production of the kinky video, which sees them mistakenly perform the track at an underground BDSM club, to a completely baffled audience.
“When we were looking at doing clips [for Is It Love], I think because of the nature of the song and title, all of the video treatments we were getting were very cheesy and we were like, ‘lets just do the complete opposite of that’. Dylan, the director of the clip, came back to us with the idea and we just thought it was really funny. And it wasn’t cheesy or anything, it was just totally unrelated. So, we went with it and any weird idea we had that we’d put forward as a joke, we made happen. I joked about having a gimp trumpet player and Dylan coerced his housemate into doing it,” he laughs.
The Creases are currently warming up for their upcoming headline tour, supporting indie-rock sensation Two Door Cinema Club, on their string of Splendour In The Grass Sideshows.
“I really liked Two Door when I was young, 16 year-old me would be screaming at the fact that I was playing with Two Door. They were a band that made me want to start a band when I saw them when I was 18. So, it’s a really big deal in that sense. And we’re just excited to play shows that are just giant, they’re probably the biggest shows we’ve ever played.”
Tremolow will be available for purchase from August 4.
When & Where: Howler, Melbourne – September 15
Written by Helena Metzke